What are the biggest barriers to creating accessible workplaces?
People think money is one of the biggest barriers, but honestly, I think it's attitudes and stereotypes. The misperceptions and misrepresentation of people with disabilities and what people think they can and can’t do.
That’s why it’s important that we see people in everyday jobs—and why one of the big areas of the Matrix is attitude. To change those attitudes, you start with an inclusive and accessible mindset and move forward from there.
What is CCEP’s Global Accessibility Matrix and how does it tackle these issues?
It’s designed to act as a ‘how to’ for companies that are working to make themselves more accessible, and as a checklist to track their progress along the way. We hope it allows other HR teams and organisations to learn from what we’ve done.
It came about initially as an internal tool. We had a number of countries in which we operate that were starting to do their own accessibility audits. But it was all in individual siloes within countries, and when we looked at the outcome of the audits there were many commonalities and similarities. So, we said hang on a minute, why are we duplicating all this effort around the world when we could bring it into a central roadmap or step-by-step guide for our countries and teams?
It doesn't matter where you start on that journey, so long as you start. Some countries will mature quicker than others depending on how supportive governments are or how societally inclusive they are. But that way, at least everyone would be heading in the right direction and could help identify good practices, do it more cost-effectively, and take the complexity out of it.
That’s the Matrix in a nutshell. We asked people to look at the areas of attitudes, communications, and physical, and to start moving through the levels as best as they can.
We know it can be tough for businesses striving to make themselves more accessible to know where best to direct their time and resources. That’s why we’re sharing the Matrix with other businesses, as a support tool to give them the confidence and resources to find the right answers.
How did you design the Matrix? What voices did you bring in to ensure it is as impactful as possible?
When doing the initial audits, we chose to work with AccessAble, a fantastic organisation focused specifically on accessibility. And we worked with them to create something to help get everyone going.
In the first instance, we used our disability catalyst group formed in early 2023, made up of a group of individuals who we either knew, had identified, or shared with us that they had disabilities and wanted to get involved in making a better workplace—or were allies in one of our local disability networks.
We used them as a sounding board, but also to make sure that their experiences were heard and their ideas were developed and integrated into that tool. We tested and trialled as we went, relying on senior country disability sponsors. We’re very lucky that we have an incredibly committed executive disability sponsor and several country-specific disability sponsors.
They gave us feedback, and we’d come back with improvements, so it’s been an iterative process, taking about 18 months to design. We also sent it to the Business Disability Forum, who reviewed it and gave us feedback.
Finally, we created a project in our internal career development platform where we invited people to form a working group, bringing in 25 people across the entire footprint of CCEP to give us fresh eyes. Had we forgotten anything? Had we missed anything? We told them to challenge us and be curious about it, and that’s how we got to where we are today. As we go it will continue to be an iterative process.